Taxidermy is a skill and art form that many think is plenty weird all on its own, even though it was practiced by luminaries like Charles Darwin and Theodore Roosevelt. It stretches from the lows of PT Barnum’s Feejee Mermaid to the highs of the myriad museums of natural history to the macabre artistry of rogue…

Mummification is a fascinating way to preserve a person's remains, whether to be worshipped or because they're planning on using that body at a later date. But some people have gone to incredible lengths to prepare their own bodies for mummification while they were still alive.

The Neptune Memorial Reef is perfect for folks who want to spend their eternity sleeping with the fishes but also want to give loved ones a neat place to visit their remains. Folks can have their ashes combined with forms for a reef that is growing over the faux ruins of what looks like a lost city.

While we tend to associate death with stillness, the short film Danse Macabre explores the ways in which a human body can move in the hours and days after death, giving its subject an unexpected grace.

How can you be sure that someone is really, truly dead? Before the age of modern medicine, it was much more difficult for physicians to confirm that someone had died, and researchers developed all sorts of tests for telling living people apart from corpses. Many of these tests were pretty odd, and a good number simply…

If you died in the United Kingdom or North America during the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a risk that your corpse might be stolen from your grave and wind up beneath a medical student's scalpel. But if you had enough money—or very good friends—there were ways that you could try to avoid that fate.

If creepy crawlies freak you out, you might want to skip this video. But if you're fascinated by animated films that do something unusual with their medium, take a few minutes to watch The Death of an Insect, an animated dance performed by bits of dead bugs.

It's a proud day when the likes of Osiris, the Grim Reaper, and the avatars of Impermanence drop their children off for their first day of Death School. But Grim Jr. disappoints dear old dad when he proves more interested in making clothes than in reaping souls.

Many people on their deathbeds report seeing a long corridor with a brilliant light at the end of it. Could it be heaven? Probably not. New research shows that these near-death visions may be linked to intense electrical surges that cause "hyper real" thoughts in our brains.

You're looking into the face of one of the internet's most disturbing legends: Jeff the Killer, whose face was burned off with acid and who hides in your closet, telling you to GO TO SLEEP. But where did this 2008 image come from? The story is as horrific as the meme itself.

In a warehouse at the Oregon State Hospital (originally called the Oregon State Insane Asylum) contains an unusual library, one comprised not of books, but of copper canisters of unclaimed human remains. Photographer David Maisel has photographed what is left of the deteriorating portions of the asylum, as well as the…

Japanese funeral home Nishinihon Tenrei wanted to create an ad that would break from the traditional funerary colors of black and white while still presenting a respectful image of their services. Tokyo-based ad agency I&S BBDO came up with this life-sized skeleton, celebrating the life of the departed through pressed…

After the invention of daguerrotype, the memorializing habits of people have changed: they've chosen the cheap, higher quality photographs instead of expensive and not so lifelike paintings. Painting dead people was common for centuries, so it's no surprise that, in the Victorian Era, post-mortem photos also came into…

Photographer Troy Paiva photographed San Francisco's Presidio Pet Cemetery during construction on the Presidio Parkway, which meant the tiny graveyard was covered by a dark temporary roof. Paiva used the unnatural surroundings, lighting tricks, and the San Francisco fog to cast an extra-gloomy pall on this final…